Susan Schoenberger, author of "The Virtues of Oxygen," will speak Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m., at a free Tolland Public Library Foundation's Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series event at Tolland Town Hall, 21 Tolland Green.
The novel is about Vivian and...

Louis Comfort Tiffany's works have lost none of their luster over time. An exhibition of 60 stained-glass lamps, vases and other Tiffany treasures at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum in Chicago has been extended through the end of the year.
Four items,...

SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, the pre-dawn commemoration of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 has featured dwindling survivors lined up on a stage at Lotta's Fountain, where those displaced by the April 18 temblor and fire once left messages for...

It's one of the most important wedding decisions — where to, you know, have the wedding. Apart from finding a spot that fits your unique tastes and themes, there's the matter of timing. Some wedding consultants suggest booking one year or more in...

Americans now have more computer power in their smart phones than did the Pentagon in all its computer banks just 30 years ago. We board a sophisticated jet and assume that the flight is no more dangerous than crossing the street.
The downside of this complete reliance on computer gadgetry is a fundamental ignorance of what technology is. Smart machines are simply the pumps that deliver the water of knowledge -- not knowledge itself.
What does it matter that millions of American students can communicate...

The Ivy Hotel, the “boutique urban resort” under development in Mid-Town Belvedere, will have a modern American restaurant named Magdalena.
The Ivy will occupy the massive Gilded Age brownstone at Calvert and Biddle streets that was built as a private residence and was most recently known as the Inn at Government House.
Magdalena will be the public face of the 18-unit hotel, which otherwise will operate in the manner of a resort, with lounge areas and spa services available for guests...

The writers' room has become a staple of American television production. But look to our British friends across the pond, and they've got other ideas. Imagine: one writer, penning all the episodes of a show. No writers' room. No shared concept. Just single vision, single author, executed from start to finish by the creator.
"Every writer would cravenly admit they would want to write their shows themselves," says Steven Moffat, the famed British scribe with a long list of credits, including "Coupling,"...

Before the 1980s, abstract painting typically embraced pure form — gesture or geometry as something self-contained, insulated from outside contamination.
Over the past generation, however, another practice has bumped that insular, aloof idea aside. Conceptual abstraction flings open the door to the world and everything in it.
"Painting in Place," a scruffy yet ambitious exhibition organized by LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division), is the latest to survey the widespread and invigorating territory....

In a bizarre letter to the New York Times this week, retired museum director Frank Robinson mischaracterized the problem being faced by the Detroit Institute of Arts in the Michigan city's ongoing bankruptcy drama.
Addressing what he called an “agonizing question,” Robinson asked: “How many lives is a Rembrandt worth?”
The struggle is framed as one between the stomach and the spirit. The survival needs of retired firefighters, nurses, police officers, teachers, civil servants...

Watching the debut this week of Al Jazeera America, I couldn't help but remember reviewing the first week of Erin Burnett's show on CNN in October 2011.
I say this not to rip Burnett again, but because her attitude toward the Occupy Wall Street protesters in that first week in 2011 offers such a clean snapshot of the difference in orientation between CNN and Al Jazeera America.
And it's important to understand that difference, because unlike Fox News and MSNBC, which wave their ideological flags...